Since You Asked

Okay girls, the cinnamon bread recipe came off of Pioneer Woman. So you can go there to print it out. And let me tell you, it.is.awesome. I'm going to try making some with whole wheat flour.

A couple of tips:

1) Make sure you roll it very tight.
Mine had huge air pockets because I rolled it too loose.
Not a big deal, just hard to toast cuz it tears easily.

2) I would check it about 10 minutes prior to the suggested bake time.
 I thought mine was a teeny bit over done.
The crust was pretty dry.

3) I didn't put as much sugar & cinnamon on mine. 
    I halved it and it was still sweet and very yummy.
   Don't know if you're watching the sugar thing but we are trying to.

4) Do not, I repeat, Do NOT kill your yeast.
    Meaning that when she says to let the milk and butter cool down,
    you'd better let it really cool down.
    The first time I tripled the batch and didn't wait long enough.
    No rising. No yummy bread. Gross bread.
    I had to throw it all away.
    What worked best for me was to let it get to room temperature before adding the yeast.


http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/08/homemade-cinnamon-bread/


Bake away ladies. And be prepared to be very, very loved.

Books of the Bible

According to Adam.

Genesis
Exodus
Las Vegas
Numbers....


Hee hee. This is what he recited in children's church yesterday. I wish I could have witnessed it first hand but it's still pretty cute. Everybody asked me what I have been teaching him but I wonder what they have been teaching him.

Signing Out

Well, we're off! Leaving bright and early in the morning. We'll be back in a couple of weeks.

See you all then!

Failure

 Well, my poor blogs have been pretty dormant these last couple of weeks. It's not for lack of effort on my part but more of a lack of time.  I have tried repeatedly to post some pictures on here but for some reason I have not been able to upload them. We are also in the throes of getting ready for vacation and catching up on school. I have pictures for the other blog but do not remember on what days they were taken so I will just post them in order and do better from today on out. I keep reminding myself that if I would keep up on it each day it would be a lot easier. But alas, I am a procrastinator at heart.

We leave for Colorado on Saturday morning. We will be there for two weeks. Unfortunately there will be no trip to Arizona this time but I'm sure we will enjoy our vacation all the same. Jay will get some snowmobiling in with his brother, the kids will get to play with cousins, Tennille and I will get to go shopping kid-free! There's been talk of going up to the cabin for a day. We have to ride the snowmobiles in to it but it's usually pretty fun. Avril will be the most difficult to entertain as she will be confined to the inside of the cabin while were are there. We plan on doing this during the second half of our stay as the elevation wipes me out. Maybe I will have adjusted by then.

Home life has been somewhat caotic. I have a newfound desire to be a better homemaker. More like the Proverbs 31 woman. I did not realize just how difficult this would be until I started trying to put it into practice. I have since failed to get up before my children, failed to do devotions in the wee hours of the morning, failed to exercise every day, failed to get things done in advance, failed to read Scripture aloud every day during breakfast, failed to finish school at a reasonable hour if at all, failed to photograph the little "every day" moments, failed to be places on time, failed to get or keep a clean house, failed to have meal times and bedtimes on time, and failed to be patient. I could go on for another hour about the things I have failed to do since I first committed myself to being a better homemaker and wife and mother but I prefer to tell you what has been accomplished. And that is truly very little. But I do have the desire to get better and even though I am failing miserably at accomplishing these things, I am moving in the right direction. That is what has been acheived. An improvement. The fact that it's better than it was. That I'm better than I was. And the realization that these things don't make me more righteous or more deserving. They don't make me more a child of God than I already am. They just help to express my love to Him. If I love Him, I will obey His commands. And eventually they will help me to be a better example, a better wife, a better mother, a better servant, less stressed, and more organized! =)



If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.  ~Thomas Edison

Just once it might be instructive to pretend you're accepting an award for failure, just to see who you would thank.  ~Robert Brault


"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

And

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him."

Not much room for failure there! =)

Ten on Tuesday (to do list)

1) Devotions

2) Adam's school

3) Deep clean laundry room

4) Bake cookies

5) Clean kitchen(a.k.a. mop the floor)

6) Blog posts

7) Vacuum

8) Finish meal planning

9) Run on treadmill

10) Work on Valentine party decorations

Have you ever...

 been too lazy to shower or wash your face at night and then you go to bed and wake up to your alarm seemingly only seconds later, to roll out of bed and stumble to the bathroom and look in the mirror at the horror that is your face and think,"Huh. My makeup doesn't look too bad."?


Yeah. Me too.

Only I didn't have my contacts in yet.

=)

Sick

We're sick.
So far Adam is the only one that hasn't come down with it. I'm hanging on tight to the concept of not tossing my cookies but my joints....ohhhhh my joints. They ache. And I'm already getting burnt out on lying around. I have a whole new sympathy for Rowan(who currently is in much more misery than myself), Avril, and Jay. Why am I not nicer when they are ill? I get impatient because they won't just lie still and veg out. But yet, I am having trouble with it myself. Until the waves of nausea hit. Then I try really hard not to even blink until they dissipate.

I do have pictures to post on the other blog. Just haven't had a chance to go to the dungeon long enough.

I want to find a really neat header for it. Any suggestions? How do I make the header go across the entire page and not just little in the center? I have one I like but realized that I got the words off-center so I need to fix it. It's a work in progress.

Just wanted to stay in touch with the outside world.